Ericsson’s next Networks Software 16B release will support 1 Gbps LTE user downlink rates and feature “hyper-scalable” radio access network (RAN) architecture. New Elastic RAN will harness interconnected basebands for optimal coordination throughout the network as a foundation in Cloud Radio Access Network (RAN) deployment. Ericsson is also adding to its Radio System portfolio with new microwave backhaul products and new access radios supporting 4×4 MIMO and 256 QAM.
Ericsson Networks Software 16B, which is slated for commercial release in Q2, will be showcased later this month at Mobile World Congress 2016 in Barcelona, Spain. Key features include:
- Three component Carrier Aggregation (CA) which enables the user to benefit from up to 60 MHz combined bandwidth from different spectrum bands simultaneously;
- 4X4 MIMO (multiple input multiple output) which doubles the number of unique data streams being transmitted to the user’s smartphone, thereby enabling up to twice the capacity and data throughput;
- LTE 256 QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) encoding which packs more bits into the available spectrum; and
- Ericsson Lean Carrier, which increases both the data throughput received by end users, and overall system capacity by reducing the interference caused by excess reference signaling across the LTE network.
Ericsson’s new Elastic RAN enables every Ericsson Radio System LTE baseband unit to coordinate with any adjacent one, whether in a centralized, distributed or hybrid network architecture using high-performance Ethernet transport networks. Ericsson said this Elastic RAN approach ensures that capabilities such as Carrier Aggregation (CA) and Coordinated Multipoint (CoMP) can improve the user’s app coverage network wide irrespective of the baseband deployment scenario.
The Ericsson Radio System, which launched in Q1 2015 and became generally available in Q3 2015, is now complemented with three new radio access products supporting 4X4 MIMO as well as new spectrum bands and spectrum re-farming:
- Radio 4415 with 4x40W output power supports 4×4 MIMO to increase capacity by doubling the available data streams
- Radio 2012 adds support for the 1.4 GHz Supplemental Downlink band, thereby adding capacity to the network
- Radio 2212 with 2x80W output power to facilitate spectrum re-farming as operators upgrade from 2G to 3G and LTE
New microwave additions to the Ericsson Radio System include:
- MINI-LINK 6651, a compact indoor unit with a link capacity of 1.9 Gbps (using 4096 QAM and a 112 MHz channel), which is used for split mount deployments using an outdoor radio unit.
- MINI-LINK 6354, a two carrier all outdoor solution for traditional frequency bands, providing a capacity of 2.8 Gbps (using 4096 QAM and 112 MHz channels).
- Multi-band Booster, which provides a significant boost in performance and improved use of spectrum, by combining a wider high frequency channel with a narrow low frequency channel. One example is bonding of an E-band microwave radio, (70 and 80 GHz) together with a radio using a channel in the 23 GHz to enable 10 times more capacity than 23 GHz alone.
- High Performance Compact antennas for the current MINI-LINK 6363, MINI-LINK 6352 and Fronthaul 6392
“Our latest combination of software, hardware and network architecture innovations supported on the Ericsson Radio System, ensure that our mobile operator customers can continue to delight their customers while driving network performance and efficiency improvements as they evolve to 5G. Gigabit LTE, Elastic RAN, and new radio access and microwave backhaul products are all designed to help our operators become the frontrunners in their markets,” stated Arun Bansal, Senior Vice President and Head of Business Unit Radio, Ericsson.